Early Encounters in North America contains 1,482 authors and over 100,000 pages of letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters. Particular care has been taken to index the material so that it can be used in new ways. For example, you can identify all encounters between the French and the Huron between 1650 and 1700.

Early Encounters in North America uses PhiloLogic software, developed at the University of Chicago, to enable in-depth browsing and searching of both the bibliographic and the full-text elements within the database. We have recently upgraded the PhiloLogic software, enhancing performance and giving the collection a fresh new look. We have improved the search engine for better performance and introduced new toolbar navigation for easier browsing, but all other functionality of the collection remains the same.